# How to get cited by ChatGPT > ChatGPT cites the pages its web search finds, and for buyer questions most of them are best-of lists. We sorted 118 pages that ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews cited to show what gets picked, then turned it into steps you can take or hand to your agent. By Jesse Sibley, Founder of Manifold. Published 16 Oct 2026, updated 16 Oct 2026. Filed under [AI search](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/blog/topics/ai-search.md). ## Key takeaways - ChatGPT turns the question into its own web search, adding the year and brand names, then cites a few of the pages it reads. - Best-of lists and comparisons were 67 of the 118 pages cited for six buyer prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews on 16 October 2026. - A vendor's own list can be cited: Attio's best CRMs for startups page was cited by all three engines. - ChatGPT links the product or pricing pages of the brands it names, so say plainly who you are for and what you cost. - Blocking OAI-SearchBot keeps a site out of ChatGPT's search answers. GPTBot is the training crawler, and it is a separate setting. - An agent with AI answer data can list the pages cited where competitors are named and you are not, and rank them by engines and prompts. ChatGPT cites the pages its web search finds for a buyer's question, and for "best X for Y" questions most of those pages are best-of lists. So the work is in three places: get your brand onto the lists that rank for your category, publish your own clear list or comparison page, and make sure OpenAI's search crawler can read your site. We asked ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews six buyer questions and sorted all 118 pages they cited. Below is what they cited, why, and the steps that follow from it. ## How ChatGPT picks the pages it cites For a question that needs current facts, ChatGPT runs a web search, reads a set of results and cites some of them in the answer. Two details from our test matter most. **It rewrites your buyer's question into its own search.** For "best crm for startups", ChatGPT searched for "best CRM software for startups 2026 HubSpot Pipedrive Zoho Attio Folk Salesforce pricing features". It added the year, the word pricing, and the brands it already had in mind. In every one of the six prompts the search named brands before ChatGPT had read a page. A brand the model does not already connect with the category is not in that search. **It reads more than it cites.** ChatGPT read 11 to 17 search results per prompt and cited 3 to 7 of them. Most of its other citations were links to the product or pricing pages of the brands it named: "Explore HubSpot", "View Klaviyo pricing", "Visit 1Password Families". So a citation needs two things: a page that ranks in the search ChatGPT runs, and a page that is easy to quote once it is read. ## What AI answers cite for "best X for Y" questions We ran six prompts, from CRM and project management software to running shoes, on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews on 16 October 2026, and sorted every unique page cited. ![Bar chart of the 118 pages cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and AI Overviews for six buyer prompts, by page type](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/blog/how-to-get-cited-by-chatgpt/how-to-get-cited-by-chatgpt-what-gets-cited.svg#1248x636 "Pages cited for six buyer prompts by ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews, 16 October 2026.") - **Best-of lists and comparisons were 67 of the 118 pages.** 47 were by publishers and review sites (NerdWallet, Runner's World, Zapier, TechRadar), and 20 were by companies that sell in the category. - **A vendor's own list gets cited.** Attio's "Best CRMs for startups in 2026" was cited by all three engines. Omnisend's "Omnisend vs. Mailchimp vs. Klaviyo" and Shopify's email marketing roundup were cited by ChatGPT, and Drip, Klaviyo, Bench and Lettuce had their own lists cited by Gemini. - **ChatGPT links product and pricing pages.** 34 of its 54 citations were the official pages of brands it recommended, often the pricing page. - **The engines differ.** Gemini cited only lists. AI Overviews was the only engine to cite YouTube videos (7) and Reddit threads (3). Six prompts is a small sample, and AI answers change from run to run. Run the same check on your own category before you plan around it. ## How to get cited by ChatGPT ### 1. Let OAI-SearchBot read your site OpenAI's [crawler documentation](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots) says OAI-SearchBot is the crawler that surfaces sites in ChatGPT's search, and that sites which block it are not shown in ChatGPT's search answers. GPTBot is a separate crawler for model training, and each setting is independent: you can block GPTBot and still allow OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI says a robots.txt change takes about 24 hours to apply to search. For the exact rules, and how other sites set them, see [what OAI-SearchBot is and how to allow it](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/blog/oai-searchbot). [OpenAI says ChatGPT search](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-chatgpt-search) sometimes partners with other search providers, so a page the main search engines have not indexed may be harder for it to find. Check your key pages in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Check the firewall too. A CDN rule that blocks unknown bots can turn OAI-SearchBot away before it reads robots.txt. And keep your main content in the HTML the server sends, since a page that only fills in with JavaScript can look empty to a crawler. ### 2. Get onto the lists that rank for your category Lists were the largest group of pages cited. Find the lists for your category: search the questions your buyers ask, and read which pages the AI answers cite today. Then ask each author to review your product, with something that makes the list better for its readers, such as a free account to test, current pricing or a fact the list has wrong. Pages cited by more than one engine, or for more than one prompt, are the first to work on. ### 3. Publish your own "best X for Y" or comparison page Attio's own list was cited by every engine for "best crm for startups". A vendor list works when it reads as a fair guide: it names the competitors, says who each one suits, includes the cases where another tool is the better choice, and shows current prices. Write it for the exact question, with the year in the title if the list is current, because ChatGPT added the year to every search it ran. ### 4. Make your product and pricing pages easy to quote When ChatGPT names you, it links your site, often the pricing page. Say on the page who the product is for, what it does and what it costs, in plain sentences in the HTML. A pricing page that only says "contact sales" gives the engine nothing to quote. ### 5. Become a brand the model connects with the category ChatGPT put brand names in its search before it read any page. Those names come from what the model already knows: the brands that reviews, forums, news and lists mention with the category. Mentions across those sources, built over months, are what puts a brand in that first search. Reddit threads and YouTube videos about your category count toward this, and AI Overviews cites them directly. ### 6. Answer the question in the first lines of each section An engine quotes a passage, not a page. Lead each section with a direct answer, then the detail. Use the buyer's words in the headings, and put comparisons in tables. Give facts a date and a source. ## Have your agent find the pages to target Finding which pages the engines cite for your category, and which of them leave you out, is a lot of manual prompting. An agent with an AI visibility MCP server can do it in one pass: 1. Run your buyer questions on ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and AI Overviews, with your brand and your competitors to detect. 2. List every page cited where a competitor is named and you are not, with the number of engines and prompts that cite each. 3. Sort the pages by type: lists to pitch, Reddit threads and videos to join, competitor pages to answer with your own. 4. Check that OAI-SearchBot and the other answer crawlers can reach your site. ## Run this in your agent Connect Manifold to your agent, then paste this prompt: ```text Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews the questions our buyers ask about [category]. List every page they cite where a competitor is named and we are not, ranked by how many engines and prompts cite it, and sort them into lists to pitch, threads and videos to join, and competitor pages to answer. Then check that OAI-SearchBot can reach our site. ``` It uses [`aeo_run_ai_answers`](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/aeo#aeo_run_ai_answers), [`aeo_search_prompts`](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/aeo#aeo_search_prompts), [`seo_get_page`](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/seo#seo_get_page) and [`aeo_get_site_readiness`](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/docs/tools/aeo#aeo_get_site_readiness). Manifold's [AI visibility MCP server](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/mcp/ai-visibility) runs the prompts live on each engine and returns the answers, the brands named and the pages cited, and its site readiness check costs no credits. To track whether ChatGPT names you over time, see [how to track your brand's visibility in ChatGPT](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/blog/chatgpt-brand-recommendations). To connect the same tools inside ChatGPT, see [ChatGPT for SEO: workflows and setup](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/blog/chatgpt-seo). ## How to tell if ChatGPT sends you traffic OpenAI's [publisher FAQ](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12627856-publishers-and-developers-faq) says ChatGPT adds `utm_source=chatgpt.com` to the links it sends. Filter your analytics on that source to see which pages ChatGPT sends readers to. Clicks show only part of it: an answer can name you without a click, so check the answers themselves each month as well. ## Questions people ask ### How does ChatGPT decide which websites to cite? For questions that need current facts, ChatGPT runs a web search, reads a set of results and cites some of them. In our test it read 11 to 17 results per prompt and cited 3 to 7. A page has to rank in that search first, then be easy to quote: a direct answer, current facts and clear structure. ### Does blocking GPTBot stop ChatGPT from citing my site? No. OpenAI's documentation says GPTBot is used for model training and OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT's search, and each setting is independent. Blocking OAI-SearchBot is what keeps a site out of ChatGPT's search answers. ### Why does ChatGPT cite my competitors and not us? Usually because the pages its search finds for the question name them and leave you out. For best X for Y questions those are mostly best-of lists. Read the pages it cites for your buyers' questions: each one that names a competitor and not you is a page to get onto or to answer with your own. ### How long does it take to get cited by ChatGPT? A robots.txt change applies to ChatGPT's search in about 24 hours, according to OpenAI. Getting onto lists and becoming a brand the model connects with your category takes weeks to months. Check the same prompts every two to four weeks to see what moved. ### Does ChatGPT cite the same sources as Google's AI Overviews? Not always. In our test, Gemini cited only best-of lists, and AI Overviews was the only engine to cite YouTube videos and Reddit threads. Check each engine your buyers use. ### How do I know if ChatGPT sends traffic to my site? ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends, so you can filter on that source in your analytics. Answers that name you without a click do not show there, so check the answers themselves too. ## Keep reading - [AI Overview tracker: how to track Google AI Overviews](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/blog/ai-overview-tracker.md): An AI Overview tracker records which searches show a Google AI Overview, which pages it cites and which brands it names. We checked eight searches and found most cited pages do not rank on page one, so here is how to track the citations themselves. - [OAI-SearchBot: what it is and how to allow it](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/blog/oai-searchbot.md): OAI-SearchBot is the crawler that lets ChatGPT search show and link your pages. Here is what each OpenAI bot does, the robots.txt rules to allow search and block training, and how eight large sites set theirs today. - [The best AI visibility tools with an MCP server](https://www.manifoldmcp.com/blog/best-ai-visibility-mcp-servers.md): When your agent needs AI visibility tracking, an MCP server connects it to the tools that monitor brand mentions and source citations across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. Here are the best AI visibility tools with MCP servers, what they cost, and which one fits your workflow.